Kimi (Moonshot AI) API key setup

Published 2026-10-11 · Updated 2026-10-20

Moonshot’s Kimi keys look familiar: sk- plus a long alphanumeric body, roughly 52 characters in total. The part that confuses people isn’t the key, it’s which endpoint to point it at.

Two platforms, two base URLs

• International: https://api.moonshot.ai/v1, keys from platform.moonshot.ai / platform.kimi.ai
• China: https://api.moonshot.cn/v1, keys from platform.moonshot.cn

A key only works on the platform that issued it. A 401 from api.moonshot.ai on a .cn key is the classic symptom.

Setup

export MOONSHOT_API_KEY="sk-..."

curl https://api.moonshot.ai/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $MOONSHOT_API_KEY"

from openai import OpenAI
import os

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["MOONSHOT_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://api.moonshot.ai/v1",
)

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="kimi-k3",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Say hello"}],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)

The Kimi Code keys

Kimi’s coding subscription issues a different credential: sk-kimi-..., used against https://api.kimi.com/coding/v1. It’s a separate product from the open platform keys: same account family, different billing.

Notes

• Model names: kimi-k3, kimi-latest, and the older moonshot-v1-8k/32k/128k aliases. The /models list is the source of truth for your tier.
• Top-up gates: flagship models sometimes require at least one successful recharge before they’ll respond, a valid key can still get “insufficient permission” style errors on K3 until the account has paid once.
• Reserved names in tools: some editors treat model ids starting with kimi- as built-ins and won’t route them to your custom base URL. Rename or pick a non-colliding alias in the tool’s config.

Keep MOONSHOT_API_KEY in the environment, match it to the right region, and the rest behaves like any OpenAI-compatible API.